Loch ken

[Karl]

Had a look up to loch ken at the weekend [20/03/2010].The weather was first class, sunshine from when we got there until we came home.The loch was like a mill pond when we arrived,not a breath of wind ,it was one of those views that sells a load of holidays . We were fishing on the east side of the loch instead of the place where we normally fish ,the reason being there was four of us and not the usual three,this would have made it a bit tight where we normally go,anyhow ,we got the gear out of the cars and headed down to the water, about a 30 metre carry.plonked the gear down and just looked at the mountains in the distance ,with there snow covered caps, it was a captivating view.Looking up we saw 5 red tailed kites ,yes that is five red tailed kites.
Finally we were set up for a days piking.We had 4 rods out on the float and five rods out on the ledger.First to go was my mates float on my left ,it was his first time piking and it showed. needless to say that one was missed ,but we all have to start somewhere.The next rod to go was my ledger rod ,its been a long time since i have heard the bleepers, put a smile right on my face. I waited till the start of the second run and then wound down and into the fish, bingo a hook up ,the fish put up a good fight and this surprised me as the water had not long lost the covering of ice , i thought it was going to be bigger than it was, but it was only 4lbs .The next rod was jeff's ,this one was 3lbs but still gave a good account of itself, the third fish was mine again this one was just over 6lbs, then Jeff got the next fish which was 7.5lbs, all in all we had an excellent day out spectacular views,good company and 4 fish ,brilliant day out , if anyone needs to know the score about how much ,the prices are cheaper on the east side than on the west. it cost us £5.00 per person with no rod restriction ,on the west side last year it was £3.00 per rod, but i don't know how much it is this year ,the fuel might ad to the cost, but there is no rod licence required in Scotland, enjoyed the day out immensely and it won't be the last trip to that loch i can assure you of that.

[MACK75]

Sounds a good days fishing, where abouts is this loch and do you drive there and back in one day or stop over somewhere? quite fancy trying a days pike fishing, have a couple of carp rods which should do the trick but do you need baitrunner style reels or would rear drag reels do?

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

It's certainly easy fishing there Karl , last time we went I managed a crayfish . We were charged £10 each and as you say the views are fantastic.

[mick dunn]

Well done Karl looks like a good time had by all.

Mick.

[Karl]

Hi MACK75 ,where to start , pike fishing is best described as a totally different type of fishing than any other , first off bait runners are the best reels in my opinion, anyhow, the right gear is a must if not for you then to safeguard the fish.It is not a thing where you can just throw a rod in the car and hope everything will be ok ,as you must have the right gear ,some places won't even let you fish if you don't have the right gear, then there is the fish,these fish have a massive armory ,very sharp teeth and even their gill rakers are fitted with, what i can only describe as, razor type hacksaw blades, they are also equipped with anticoagulant ,so when you get cut [and you will if you don't know how to handle and unhook them] you will bleed for quite some time .There is some places where you can get lessons in how to handle the fish, i would recommend this route if you have never been before ,unless you have an experienced pike angler with you, again if not for you then for the fish. I don't want to put you off but it is better to be prepared than not ,but that's just my opinion--hope this helps ---Karl

[Karl]

Hello steve ,you must have been on the west side of the lake , i was on the east [the cheap tickets ], we were going to go around that side but its about another 8 miles to that point,and with it been the weekend, we didn't want to take a chance in case someone had beaten us to the spot where we wanted to be, no cray fish yet but no doubt they will show there heads soon ,when they do it is best to use pop ups as this keeps the bait away from them , but it is annoying, we are going to try lochfoot in two weeks time .I have never fished there so it will be a new loch to explore hope the weather is as good---Karl